The main objective of the proposed international scientific meeting is to bring together for two days speakers from strategically selected foreign countries as well as speakers from the United States knowledgeable about home health care policies and practices abroad to address the topic of "Home Health Care and Elders: International Perspectives". Nearly all the countries of the world be they capitalist, socialist, or developing face the fact of severe financial constraints at a time when the numbers of elderly in their populations are rapidly increasing. Most countries seek an optimum balance between home health care and institutionalization and between family, voluntary, private, and publically provided services. This meeting will provide an opportunity for speakers and members of the intended audience to consider the role of history, culture, and politics in contributing to the development of the service mix that characterizes particular countries and to discuss the issue of the transferability of home health care programs across national boundaries. The symposium is intended to attract physicians, social workers, nurses, agency administrators, planners and researchers interested in innovative programs and their applicability to their own aging populations. The four main sessions will cover the following topics: "Home Health Care Policy: National and Local Contexts", "Providers of Home Care", "The Significance and Management of Limitations on Mobility", and "The Provision of Care to the Terminally Ill in the Home". The keynote speaker is expected to provide a comparative overview while the dinner speaker will focus on innovative home health care programs and policies facilitating them. In addition to hearing formal presentations, the attendees will also have the opportunity to interact on a more personal basis with the speakers at the four discussion sessions that will be held each day. Continuing education credits will be sought for the relevant categories of attendees. The presented papers in edited form will be published as a book to make the materials more widely available internationally.